China's service economy is still maturing, and restaurant customers complain of bad service. A restaurant owner found an answer. Instead of hiring waiters and waitresses, he installed robots. They serve food while rotating slowly around the room. The upside is that the robots never talk back, and you don't have to tip.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

China's service economy is still maturing, and restaurant customers complain of bad service. A restaurant owner found an answer. Instead of hiring waiters and waitresses, he installed robots. They serve food while rotating slowly around the room. The upside is the robots never talk back, and you don't have to tip. The downside is that none of the wait staff are writing screenplays, and no lonely millionaire will ever marry one.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.